Introduced Predator
by Unitarian Jihadist
Summary: BtVS/Predator crossover. Something is killing predators on their homeworld. Something they can't see, much less fight. Something from Earth. Now, a predator matriarch turns to another kind of predator who can see, and kill, what they can't: Buffy Summers.
1. Chapter 1

Introduced Predator

_BtVS/Predator crossover. Something is killing predators on their homeworld. Something they can't see, much less fight. Something from Earth. Now, a predator matriarch turns to another kind of predator who can see, and kill, what they can't: Buffy Summers._

**This story came to me when I watched the original Predator movie and then also watched BtVS once again with my wife, and a scene from Season 4 of BtVS suggested something. Namely, that a Buffyverse vampire would be a predator's worst nightmare, particularly a **_**smart**_** vampire. So, as one of the primary antagonists for this story, I have picked the creepiest vampire in the Buffyverse, the one vampire neither Buffy nor any other Buffyverse protagonist was able to destroy. Most BtVS fans should immediately know who I am talking about. If not, it will be obvious by the end of this chapter. **

**While this is primarily a BtVS/Predator crossover, this is in fact a pastiche that will include characters and references to at least two other franchises, Men in Black and Hellboy (the movies, not comic books).**

**Standard disclaimers:**

**Buffy and affiliated characters are the creation and intellectual property of Joss Whedon and associates at Mutant Enemy. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the property of 20th Century Fox.**

**Predators are the creation of Jim and John Thomas and were originally designed by Stan Winston. They are also owned by 20th Century Fox. **

**Hellboy and affiliated characters are the creations of Mike Mignola. Men in Black were created by Lowell Cunningham. I use none of these characters with permission, and I derive no profit from their use except my enjoyment and hopefully the enjoyment of others. **

**This story is set during season 5 of BtVS, and it does end up creating an alternate reality for the characters. Also, I do not reference nor will I be using any material from the expansion of the predator universe in either the comic books or the AvP movies. The only direct influences will be the movies Predator, Predator 2, and Predators. The rest is speculation. **

Prologue

Los Angeles, 2001

To the predator, fear was an abstraction.

It was a set of observed physiological responses found in prey, either in response to predators or to other threats. Understanding the physiology of fear and its effect on behavior allowed for one to predict what prey might do, but the feeling itself was alien to the predator nature, a sensation to be observed and objectively understood, but not imagined, much less felt.

In his own fashion, the predator felt other emotions. He felt joy, grief, loyalty, anger, and pride. Especially pride. Perhaps the closest thing that he felt to fear was the excitement that came with earning pride. It was a feeling to be sought. Death was the ultimate result for all living things, but the avoidance of death for as long as possible was the ultimate accomplishment, and the more times death was challenged and defeated, the greater the accomplishment.

So, to a predator, death was a thing to be sought and teased. The greatest accomplishment for a male predator was to challenge death many times and live long enough to become old and weak. It was a rare accomplishment.

And so it was that he was on here on "Earth", a surprisingly tiny planet for a lush world with charismatic megafauna.

Ironically, on this world the most exotically dangerous game was a physical weakling among fauna already rendered fragile by reduced gravity. But these "humans" had developed crafty natures and deadly weapons of their own, and they had killed _seven _predators in the last 100 Earth years, more than any other Earth species.

But this predator, on his second human hunt, had discovered something exciting and new! Something called a "Fyarl demon". It was ponderous and slow, but it was far stronger than a Earth being its size should be, perhaps even as strong as an adult female predator (making it as strong as _**three**_ males!). More excitedly, the Fyarl was accompanying four impressively armed humans. The humans and the Fyarl were on the hunt for something called "vampires", whatever they were. The predator didn't care. The armed humans _and _the Fyarl were already a sufficient combined prize. His pod mates would be jealous, and that was what mattered to him.

And so the predator, cloaked against the ultra-red frequencies that formed the basis of the human visual system, stalked his prey as they traveled in their "van" on the roads of Los Angeles. When his prey isolated themselves from other human witnesses, he would take them all.

As the predator followed the van, he once fancied he heard a light scrape, and later something else that sounded like a human sigh. But, as he paused, he heard nothing else, and saw nothing else.

Then, unambiguously, he heard the sound of human laughter, the sort that would have been called a giggle if he had had the vocabulary to distinguish between types of human laughter.

But there was nothing there, and there was no further sound.

Predators did not have a concept for ghosts or spirits. Instead, he wondered if he was having an auditory hallucination.

Then he heard his human prey screaming, and heard startled snarls from the Fyarl. He also heard the humans discharging their weapons.

Like a youngling, the predator had allowed himself to be distracted from his prey, and it took him a few moments to find them. The van had pulled off into an alleyway, a perfect killing ground, but something had gotten to his chosen prey first. The humans were dismembered, and the neck of the Fyarl had been broken.

Whatever had killed them (perhaps one of these "vampires"?) had made quick work of them. And it had gone as quickly as it had come.

The predator, feeling rage and disappointment, disregarded appropriate caution and dropped among the corpses of his intended prey.

"_Bad_ space demon," said the human voice he had heard giggling before. The voice came from behind him. "Trying to take a turn in _my_ game without so much as a may I please."

He whirled and fired his shoulder cannon. Bricks exploded out with the impact.

But there was nothing there.

He heard nothing, he saw nothing.

Not until he heard the voice again, moving around him with a quickness that greatly exceeded his own.

"I didn't take a drink, so Mr. Bad Space Demon Game Cheat is blinded by my virtue," it said. The voice was female.

If the predator had understood fear, he might have understood the understated terror of a ghost story with its quiet fleeting sounds.

He might even have lived to become old, weak, and proud.

As it was, the invisible owner of the voice was on him before he could do anything about it, tearing at him with a strength well beyond human conception.

...

The blood looked quite horrible, with its glowing bright green color and its watery mucous consistency.

But the scent of it was intoxicating, and as she drank it, she felt a strength flow through her that she had never felt before. She had to have more.

"What a _sweet_ tea," she said to herself. "I must fetch Miss Edith for our tea party in the stars. But I _do_ so hope we can find the_ right_ star, since they all have the same name."

**May be awhile before I update. **


	2. Chapter 2

**This chapter includes an obvious tip of the hat to Howard Phillips Lovecraft. **

Chapter 1

Earth, Various Locations, May, 2001

"So, is she going to be OK?" Riley Finn asked.

The young woman with very dark red hair, Captain Samantha Cain, was resting on a hospital bed in a hidden base in Fort Riley, Kansas. Four years ago, she had been a doctor with the Peace Corps, working in a village, before her infirmary was wiped out by Toth demons. Riley, having just started with the Initiative, was part of the crew that had rescued Sam. When he had rejoined the Initiative three months ago, Riley was shocked to learn that the erstwhile Peace Corps volunteer had joined the Initiative as both field doctor and operative. Riley touched the bandage on his face. The cut would leave a nasty scar, but his head would have been cut in two if it hadn't been for Sam's quick actions, both in combat and in medicine.

It was almost like being back with...

Riley felt the vibration of his cell phone. He took it out of his pocket.

"Finn," he said.

"Major Finn, you don't know me, even though we are ultimately employed by the same department," a man's voice said. The man sounded like he was in his seventies. He had an accent that was hard to identify. Almost like a hybrid of English and German.

"And you are...?" Riley asked.

"I am Trevor Bruttenholm, I run the civilian law enforcement and intelligence arms of our branch of the DOD."

"I know who you are, sir," Riley said. "And it's a pleasure to finally talk to you in person. I think I've read every article and monograph you've ever written."

"I'm not sure even _you_ have clearance to read _all_ of them, Major Finn, but I am quite flattered nevertheless."

"I'm particularly interested in your article about the personality traits of various Great Old Ones..."

Bruttenholm delicately cleared his throat, politely sending a message that further discussion regarding the hypothetical personalities of Pre-Cambrian deities would have to wait for another time.

"_Sorry_, sir. What can I do for you?"

"We need to make contact with a close acquaintance of yours, Major Finn," Bruttenholm said. "A Miss Buffy Summers."

"I don't think you need me for _that_, sir, she's pretty easy to find," Riley said. "She's even in the phone book, under her mother's name."

Riley felt a pang as he thought about the untimely passing of Joyce Summers. He had really liked her.

"Actually, Major Finn, that is precisely the point. Miss Summers and her closest acquaintances appear to have fled Sunnydale. Apparently, Miss Summers has elicited the enmity of a rather powerful God from a hell dimension."

"A _God_?" Riley was uncomfortable with the concept of calling any entity except the subject of his Lutheran Sunday School lessons "God".

"Yes, I share your lack of comfort with the concept," Bruttenholm replied, and Riley remembered that the man on the other end of the connection was a devout Roman Catholic. "But Glory is apparently worshipped as a God in her home dimension. She appears to be closely related to the Great Old Ones themselves. In fact, she may even be one of them."

"But...Buffy said she was just a 'hella strong skank with awful fashion sense!' How could that be a ...I mean, where are the non-Euclidian angles? The sanity destroying hideousness? The..."

"It doesn't matter," Buttenholm replied. "What matters is that this Glory is powerful enough that the Slayer, arguably the most accomplished one in history, has decided that discretion is the better part of valor.

"And we _need_ Miss Summers, Major Finn. Desperately. It would be no exaggeration to say that the continued existence of our world is at stake."

...

K was uncomfortable. Usually, J rode in the passenger seat along with him, but now it was Zed. J was in the back seat.

Zed for the most part stayed at home base. It was the way things worked.

For Zed to insist on going with them meant that things were seriously wrong. This was more than just another world threatened with destruction scenario.

"So let me get this straight," J was saying. "The preds are threatening to blow up the Earth? I thought they considered us a game preserve. I thought they signed a treaty with us and everything."

"Yes," Zed replied. "But the preds now allege that we have _broken_ the treaty. It's ridiculous. We have done no such thing. They knew they hunted here at their own risk."

"So what's their gripe, Zed?" K asked. "The preds don't strike me as the sore loser type."

"Their argument, K, is that we have been harboring exotic and extremely dangerous non-native wildlife, in violation of treaty. And they allege that we have failed to contain this exotic wildlife."

"Exotic?" asked J. "You mean some sort of alien species?"

"Of a sort, J," Zed replied. "Of a sort."

K maneuvered the disguised pseudo-car into an overgrown drive way. As a member of MIB, he figured that he knew every secret department every government on this world had, especially the United States government, but this was new. However, as he maneuvered the pseudo-car through the driveway, he recognized the sure signs of a super-secret government base. The planned lack of maintenance, the uninteresting landscaping and shabby ruins lining the driveway, all of which were calculated to bore civilians. It looked like an MIB or Second Department of State base, but this was neither. This was something different, something new that had been kept a secret even from him.

"What is this?" J asked. "Who _are_ these guys?"

The nice thing about having J along was that he asked the questions K wanted answered without forcing the latter to give up his cultivated expression of cool detachment.

"The BPD," Zed replied. "And that's all I can tell you. One of them will have to tell you what the initials stand for."

"Do these guys know about us?" K asked. So much for cool detachment. K fingered the pen in his inside jacket pocket as he steered one handed.

"Only my counterpart, but don't worry about the damn pen, K," Zed replied. "These guys keep secrets comparable to ours, so a few new ones won't matter to them. And we can't be wiping each other's memories while we are all working together."

The familiar pattern held as K pulled the pseudo-car up to a gate. The gate was calculated to look minimally maintained, but it was actually very sturdy. It appeared to be made of the same alien steel alloy that reinforced MIB equipment.

K was unsurprised when two black suited men seemed to just appear on each side of his vehicle. The man on the driver's side was big, and as he tapped on the window with his left hand his right was under his jacket pocket.

The man looked in at the car, taking in the black suits and official aura of its occupants.

"ID's," the man said. K produced his fake FBI ID. The man took it and snorted.

"That's not good enough," the man said as he pulled a Beretta from out of his jacket pocket. Behind him, K knew that J had his "noisy cricket" out and at the ready.

"I'm sorry," Zed said, leaning carefully across K and showed the man his own Department of Defense ID. "Agent Clay, I presume? This man is with me and I believe that Mr. Bruttenholm is expecting us."

"Parker," Agent Clay spoke into his lapel. "Call in and ask if the boss man is expecting a Mr. Zedowski for company."

The man on the other side of the pseudo-car did not move, so there were clearly other men on the grounds, probably hidden behind the intentionally overgrown woods that lined the cracked driveway.

"Zed_owski_?" echoed J in a whisper.

"Shut up, J," Zed whispered back.

After a second, Agent Clay raised his free hand to his ear.

"Let 'em in," he said. He threw K's ID onto his lap, but carefully handed Zed's ID to him.

"You need to get your man a better FBI ID, Mr. Zedowski," Clay said to K. "I've got the real thing."

K drove through the gate. On the other side was an old rundown mansion and a massive brick courtyard. There were also five men in dark suits, three with high powered automatic rifles. One of the men with the rifles waved them to an empty spot on the courtyard to park. K was not surprised when their parking spot suddenly started to descend into an underground facility.

"Here we go," said J.

The underground facility looked a lot like MIB underground facilities, minus the aliens walking, flying, slithering, and hovering around. Instead, the facility was just full of men in black suits.

"Holy shit, K!" J exclaimed. "Is that guy who I think it is?"

K looked where J was pointing and saw three differently dressed men standing together. Well, at least two of them were men. One of them was an older, professorial looking type, his eyes blinking behind wired glasses. He wore a brown tweed suit. The other was a younger, big blond man with a black military looking outfit. He had a large bandage on the left side of his face.

The third man, if he was a man at all, was huge. His skin was as red as a tomato, and on his forehead were horns, cut and filed back. His right hand was several times bigger than his left, and looked like it was made of stone. And he had a red tail.

"Yep, that's Hellboy," K said. "Looking just like he does in the 'bloids."

"Oh man, don't tell me," J said. "We're joining forces with the monster hunters."

The platform elevator completed its descent.

"Go ahead and open the door, K," Zed said. As K opened the door, the older man stepped forward. K noticed that Hellboy followed the older man protectively.

"Gentlemen," the older man said. "I am Trevor Bruttenholm. Welcome to the Bureau for Paranormal Defense,"

"Toldja," J said.

...

Buffy was overwhelmed.

Giles was seriously wounded by a spear thrown by one of the Knights of Byzantium. Tara was losing what little control her fragile mind had, and Willow was clearly on edge. Spike and Xander were snarling at one another (well, OK, that was nothing new), and Dawn was barely holding herself together.

And then there was Gregor, the leader of the Knights, telling them that resistance was futile like some medieval version of the Borg.

Willow was working on putting a spell on the disconnected payphone in the abandoned gas stationed they were holed up in. She was having to be careful to cast that spell while not weakening her barrier spell, which was all that was protecting them from the growing army of knights outside.

"OK," Willow said. "I think I got it to work."

Buffy stepped forward, intending to call Ben, the young, good looking doctor she had met in Sunnydale Memorial Hospital. However, before she could take the receiver from Willow's hand, a voice came out of the phone.

Willow and Buffy looked at one another. The voice _almost_ sounded like...

Buffy put the phone to her ear.

"Hey, Buffy," the voice said. "It's me, Riley. Hold tight. Help is on the way."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2

The Test

"What is _he_ doing here?" Riley Finn demanded as he pointed at Spike. Spike felt a fresh flare of hatred for Buffy's former all American boyfriend. He had gotten rid of the blighter just 5 months before, and now he was back with his rugged good looks and his shiny damn soul.

"He was with us because he was willing and able to _help_, Riley," Buffy replied. "And I was willing to take whatever help I could get."

"You know he is just trying to get in your...well, _you_ know," Finn said.

"Maybe," Buffy said. "But you haven't been here. He could have...he was tortured but he didn't...he may not have a soul, but he was very brave. Much braver than he needed to be."

Buffy looked around at the men who had come in with Finn. She was clearly not ready to blab in front of the strange men that Dawn was the Key. Spike felt a momentary smug sense of superiority. He may have been a soulless vampire, but the Slayer still trusted him more than these new men.

The Slayer took an especially long look at the big red demon. Spike had never seen his type before, except in once or twice in the World Weekly News. The red demon, in turn, was staring a hole through Spike.

_Try it, big guy. _Spike thought. _**You **__I can hurt._

"Finn, you said he has one of Walsh's chips in his head, and it's working?" the big red demon asked.

"Yeah, but it only keeps him from attacking humans, so it won't work with you, Red," Riley said. "Just a heads up."

"Red" took out the biggest handgun Spike had ever seen in his unlife.

"_No_ problem," Red said.

"You _sure _he's OK?" Buffy said, jerking her head towards Red.

"He's one of the good guys," Finn said. "_Really_ one of the good guys, unlike a certain Billy Idol wanna-be."

"Billy Idol _wanna be_?" Spike yelled indignantly. "Where the Bloody _**Hell **_do you think he _got_ the idea to..."

Spike noticed that everyone was now staring at him. "Red" had a smirk on his face.

"..._never_ bloody mind. Slayer, I'm just going to stand over there out of the way, while you catch up with Captain Vanilla T. Cardboard."

"That's _Major_ Vanilla T. Cardboard to you, pal," Riley said.

Spike snorted.

"Whatever. Let me know if there is anything I can help you out with, Slayer."

So saying, Spike went over to the furthest corner of the abandoned gas station. But not nearly so far that he couldn't hear or see whatever conversation took place between the Slayer and Finn. Vampire hearing was useful for something.

Then, before Spike's outraged eyes, Riley Finn handed Buffy a note.

...

Buffy stared at Riley's handwritten note.

BUFFY, I THINK IT'S BEST WE FIND SOMEWHERE ELSE TO TALK. SOMEWHERE SPIKE CAN'T HEAR US, UNLESS YOU WANT ME TO STAKE HIM.

Buffy looked up at Riley and shook her head. Riley nodded and held his hand out for the notebook sheet he had handed her. He quickly wrote some more and handed the paper back to her.

OK. HAVE IT YOUR WAY.

REAL QUICKLY. THERE ARE ALIENS OUT THERE AS WELL AS DEMONS AND VAMPIRES. WE HAVE REASON TO BELIEVE A VAMPIRE HAS KILLED AN ALIEN WE CALL A PREDATOR, AND HAS SINCE MADE IT TO THE PREDATOR HOME WORLD TO KILL SOME MORE.

WE THINK THIS VAMPIRE IS DRUSILLA.

Well, that explained why Riley did not want to talk in front of Spike. Who knew how hearing the name of his sire and First True Love would affect him? Drusilla seemed to be able to make Spike almost as crazy as she was. And after all, it wasn't as if Spike was really burdened with a conscience or anything. Buffy did not want to find herself in a situation where Spike was choosing between her and Drusilla.

Buffy wrote back.

_So, what? Are the aliens threatening to invade the Earth or blow it up or something unless someone does something about Drusilla?_

Riley took back the paper, read her note, and looked up and stared at Buffy, his eyes wide.

He wrote back.

AS ALWAYS, GOOD GUESS.

"Damn," Buffy said. "So let me guess some more, these aliens want me to be the Slayer to the stars, as in _literally _to the stars?"

Riley took the paper back and wrote a little more.

YEAH. ABOUT THAT. THEY WANT YOU TO TAKE A TEST FIRST. AND FROM WHAT I HAVE BEEN TOLD ABOUT THESE PREDATOR GUYS, THE TEST WON'T BE EASY.

"So what else is new?" Buffy said. "Why should things start getting easy _now_?"

...

J held up a jar in front of the wounded man, Giles, and his friends, who had been introduced as Xander, Anya, and Willow. The other girl, who was introduced as "Tara", was muttering about something being "so shiny" while staring at a kid who looked to be on the early side of teenager.

"I know this doesn't look like much, but I swear to you, man, _this_ little guy will make you as good as new," J said.

"What, a _leech_?" Xander said. "I think medicine has come along a bit since leeches."

"This ain't no leech, pal," J said. "Well, actually, they_ are_ known informally as leeches, but that's because they are the best doctors in four galaxies, and yeah, _also_ because they kind of _look_ like Earth leeches."

"So, uhm, how does it...uhm...work?" the red headed girl, Willow, asked.

"Well, it's...it's a lot better than it sounds," J said. "This little guy...it...well, crawls inside you, this time I think it will go through the spear wound...and heals you from the inside. But, it is a really _good_ doctor and..."

"Oh, dear Lord, please stop talking," the Giles guy said. J noticed he was looking rather green.

"...you don't feel a thing," J finished. "I promise."

"Have _you_ ever had one of these things crawl up inside you?" Xander asked.

"Yeah," J said. "I really have. Several times. And it was great. I always felt better than new when Doc Leech was done with me."

Which was true. J, however, omitted the part about his kicking, screaming, and begging K to "get that thing out of me!" the first time "Doc Leech" was crawling into his nose.

Giles, however, who looked to be in his late forties, maybe early fifties, was apparently made of sterner stuff.

"Let's get this over with, then, Mr. J," Giles said.

Xander turned to Anya, who was evidently his girlfriend.

"Let's go," he said.

"No," Anya said. "I want to watch."

"_Watch_? _How_ can you...?" Xander said, but then he shrugged. "Never mind. For a second there, I forgot who I was talking to.

"Willow?"

"Actually, Xander," Willow said as she swallowed hard. "I...I think I'm gonna watch as well. After all, this is probably the only time I'm gonna get to see an _alien doctor_ in action."

...

Trevor Bruttenholm walked over to the girl, Dawn Summers. It was quite remarkable, really. According to Gregor, Dawn Summers was actually the legendary Dimensional Key, given human life by monks belonging to the Order of Saint Mithras, formerly the Order of Mitra, back in September of 2000. However, when the BPD records clerk brought up the name Dawn Summers, there was a complete life's history, including Social Security Number, Birth Certificate, etc. When confronted with this knowledge, Gregor (who Trevor knew was an accountant in his civilian life) claimed that all that history must have been part of the spell.

However, given the nature of the Key, Trevor suspected something else may have happened. Besides, whatever Dawn Summers "really" was, at the moment she was mostly a very scared little girl.

"Miss Summers," Trevor said.

"Oh, uhm...yeah...who _are_ you, exactly?" Dawn asked.

"I'm Tre...Professor Bruttenholm," Trevor said.

"Broom?"

"Well, that's how it's pronounced. The spelling is a little more complicated."

"Yeah," Dawn said, obviously not really interested in how Trevor's last name was really spelled. "Y'know, it's kinda ironic. I mean, here I am, the big prize for Glory that everyone is trying to protect, and yet as soon as Riley and you guys arrive, no one's even talking to me."

Dawn looked at Trevor.

"I...uhm...I don't think I was supposed to _tell_ you that."

"It's quite all right, young lady," Trevor said. "Gregor here already told me who you are."

"You mean, _what_ I am," Dawn corrected.

"No, I _meant __**who**_you are," Trevor corrected back.

"It's nothing personal, young lady," Gregor interrupted, his chains rattling as he turned his head to look at Dawn Summers. "But you _aren't_ actually human, and if The Beast gets her hands on you..."

"If I'm not human, then why'd you just call me 'young lady'?" Dawn asked. Trevor smiled at Gregor's flummoxed expression. Like all the Knights of Byzantium, he was rather single minded, not to mention inflexible.

Gregor turned to look at Trevor.

"We _will _destroy it in the end, Trevor," Gregor said. "You know what will happen if we don't."

Trevor turned to his adopted son.

"Hellboy," Trevor said. "Would you be so good as to take Gregor out to get acquainted with Mr. K's pen, like the rest of his company?"

Hellboy walked over, easily broke Gregor's chains with his stone hand, and then laid his left hand on the knight's armored shoulder.

"Gladly," Hellboy said. "Come along, you."

Mr. K's very special pen would insure that the trail of Dawn Summers would be cold, not only for the Knights of Byzantium, but for the dreaded if rather dense Glorificus as well.

...

"Don't move," J said.

Rupert Giles felt a rather ticklish sensation under his nose. J held the jar under Giles' nose, and then the next second held the jar up, with the little black leech alien crawling around inside. J held his hand to his right ear.

"Right, Doc," J said. J then jerked his head to a woman who, like J, was wearing a black suit and sunglasses.

"Take Doc to get its myrrathian steak," J said to the woman. "It's earned it."

So saying, J handed the jar to the woman in black and then turned to Giles.

"So, how are you feeling, Mr. Giles?" J asked.

"Quite well, actually," Giles sat up experimentally. He looked down at his chest and gut. There was no sign of the wound whatsoever. And there was no pain.

Giles sat up further.

"Am I _really_...?" Giles asked.

"Yep, you should be completely cured," J said.

"Remarkable," Giles said.

"That was _so_ cool," Willow said even as she rubbed a calming hand on Tara's palm.

"Yes," Anya agreed. "You should get wounded again, Giles, so that we can see the leechy doctor work some more. It was very entertaining."

J gave Giles an odd look.

"Is she...?" J started to ask.

"Serious?" Giles completed. "I'm afraid so. And if you don't mind, I think I would like to talk to my slayer now."

"Who?" J asked. "You have a _what_?"

So, this alien wrangler had not been told who or what Buffy was.

"The little blond girl you saw when you came in here."

J stared at him.

"You mean, that little _girl_ is the one the preds want to talk to?" J asked. "_She's_ what you call a slayer?"

Giles felt a horrific chill.

"_Preds_. Is that short for _predators_, by any chance? As in alien hunters who come here trophy hunting for armed human prey?"

J looked as if Giles had just told him that he used to be a woman.

"_Wait_ a minute, how the Hell do _you_ know about...?" J started to say.

Giles stood up. His mind quickly transitioned to "Ripper" mode. J, no civilian himself, responded immediately as he sensed the change in Rupert Giles.

"Stand aside," Giles said to J. "_Now_."

...

Buffy and Riley had moved outside. She was startled to see that the knights, including Gregor, were all gone. However, some of their weapons, an assortment of swords and crossbows, were left behind.

The big red demon guy was smoking a cigar and shooting the breeze with a couple of men in black suits.

But what drew her attention was the set of beings standing off by themselves about 60 yards away. They were big, she could hear them breathing and chittering between themselves. However, the only visual sign that anything was there was that the air seemed to ripple.

"So are those the predators you were talking about?" Buffy asked, pointing to the spot where the air rippled. Riley looked confused.

"What?" he asked. "There's nothing there."

"Yeah, there is," Buffy said. She concentrated, isolating the breathing sounds. She could also hear some light mechanical sounds as well. Thank goodness for slayer senses. Buffy had a feeling that she was going to need them for whatever test the predators were going to set up for her. "I count 5 of them, two of them a lot bigger than the other three."

Riley raised his head and called to a stocky older guy in a dark suit.

"_**Zed**_!" he called. "Can you come over here for a second?"

Zed walked over.

"Yes, Major Finn," Zed said. "Have you debriefed Miss Summers yet on what she is going to have to do?"

"OK, pal," Buffy said. "First of all, you want me to do something, you talk to _me_, not Riley. Second of all, you should know that I have a real difficult time with middle aged men who assume they can tell me what to do. Especially if their initials are not Rupert Giles."

And it was at that moment that Giles himself burst out of the abandoned gas station, followed by Xander, two of the other black suited sunglass guys, and the kindly looking older guy who had politely introduced himself as "Professor Trevor Broom". As Buffy watched, Willow came out and caught the sleeve of the younger of the two sunglass men, as if to ask him a question.

"Buffy," Giles said. "Whatever they are asking you to do, don't do it."

"Dr. Giles," Zed replied mildly. "What we are asking your Miss Summers to do is to save the world. Again. It is my understanding that saving the world is what she does."

Giles came up to Buffy and gently took her arm, escorting her away from Riley and Zed.

"Buffy, what have they told you?" Giles asked.

Buffy didn't have to think long about her answer.

"Not much," she replied. "Apparently there are these aliens called predators. By the way, I think they may be partially invisible, I count 5 of them standing over there."

So saying, Buffy pointed to the spot where she saw the air ripple and heard the breathing and mechanical noises.

"Oh dear lord, they're cloaked," Giles said. "Did they say anything about _why_ these predators want you?"

"Yeah," Buffy replied. "Apparently, a vamp has gotten loose on their home world. It seems they want me to go there and get rid of (Buffy almost said _her_)...it."

Buffy leaned forward. The sun was setting, but it was still out, and Spike was inside. He could probably hear their conversation at normal voice, but from out here even he couldn't hear them whisper.

"They think the vamp is Drusilla," Buffy said. "Keep it quiet. We don't want Spike hearing this."

Giles took Buffy's arm and steered her further from the abandoned gas station and also Riley and the other men. Xander was standing with them, trying awkwardly to engage Riley in a conversation.

In other words, Xander was trying to keep Riley and the other men occupied so that Buffy and Giles could have a private conversation.

"OK, Giles, you're freaking me out," Buffy whispered. "What do you know about these things?"

"What _you_ should know," Giles said. "One, these predators are trophy hunters. They come to this planet to hunt the most dangerous game that they can find here, and that game tends to be armed humans. On two occasions, they found what they considered _truly_ exceptional prey."

Buffy was too emotionally drained by recent events to work up a chill, just a kind of resigned irritation at having yet another enemy to fight.

"Let me guess," Buffy said. "They hunted slayers."

"Twice," Giles said. "The first time, back in medieval Poland, a predator succeeded in killing a slayer. The predators take the skull and spine of humans as their prize. This slayer's watcher found..."

"Never _mind_, Giles, I get the idea," Buffy said. "What about the other slayer?"

"Well, uhm, yes, the other slayer was Nikki Wood."

"Who?"

"The slayer who was killed on a New York subway by Spike."

"So, she killed the predator that hunted her?"

"Not exactly, although according to her report she was winning when the predator was taken."

"Taken by what?" Buffy asked.

"By one of the vampires she was hunting," Giles replied.

"Must have been a bad assed vamp," Buffy said.

"No, not at all," Giles replied. "In fact, Nikki subsequently disposed of the vampire quite easily. Predators see in the infra-red spectrum. Thus, they see us primarily through body heat."

"Which vamps don't have," Buffy said.

"Right," Giles replied. "They also don't breathe or have heartbeats, which means when they aren't talking, and otherwise making every effort to be quiet..."

"...they're completely invisible to predators," Buffy said. "Got it. The big bad predators can't see vamps until its too late."

"Quite," Giles said. "But they don't have that handicap with slayers."

"Giles, I don't think they want to hunt me," Buffy said. "They want my help."

"They want a _slayer's_ help," Giles said. "Buffy, after Nikki Wood had her encounter with a predator, a representative from a previously unknown government agency, I suspect quite possibly that very man there..."

So saying, Giles pointed at Zed.

"...visited with the leadership of the Watcher's Council. It seems that the predators, quite rightly, see vampires as unnatural, and therefore in their eyes an abomination. They also see vampires as a potential threat to the galaxy if they ever got off of Earth. Mr. Zed and his agency apparently assured the predators that we would contain the threat."

"You mean 'we' being the Watcher's Council, which really comes down to the Slayer, which means, at the present time, it all comes down to _me_."

"Yes, but it is my understanding that the predators know how the slayer transition works. Zed and his associates had to explain that to satisfy them that we had a means to contain the vampire menace."

"You mean the part about how when one slayer dies, one takes her place?" Buffy felt her disgust return. "Riley said there would be a test. I'm guessing that the test is a fight to the death."

"I believe you are correct," Giles said. "The predators are probably going to make certain they have the right slayer, and in their minds, that means testing slayers until they find one that passes the test, by killing her opponent."

"How do you _know_ all this?" Buffy asked.

"I don't know it, I infer it," Giles replied. "Aly...an old friend of mine, in fact rather ironically the _nephew_ of Nikki Wood's watcher, was also hunted by a predator. He...he is an accomplished big game hunter, and he is also an exceptional forensic investigator, and after he survived his encounter with a predator, he looked into them, and his investigations eventually led him to the records of the Watcher's Council. What he discovered greatly improved our own intelligence on the things.

"They're _tenacious_, Buffy, and they're _proud_. They won't be happy about having to turn to a human to help them, and they will want that human to prove herself to them."

Buffy thought for a second. She already had problems with Glory, the mad God(dess?) who had just learned that Dawn was the Dimensional Key. Glory wanted to sacrifice Dawn so that she could open a gateway between Earth and her home dimension. Not only would that be bad for Dawn, but for the entire world as well. According to Giles and the Watcher's Council, if Glory used the Key to open a gateway to her hell dimension, she would open multiple gateways, and Earth would be overrun by as many as a hundred hell dimensions.

Maybe, just maybe, this invitation to hunt Drusilla on another planet was an opportunity. An opportunity for Buffy to take Dawn where Glory would never find her, much less reach her. A way to keep both the world _and_ Dawn safe.

That made the decision easy.

"Let's get this show on the road, then," Buffy said.

"Buffy, _no_!" Giles exclaimed.

"What, you don't think I can do what your friend did?" Buffy asked. "Is he even a slayer?"

"No...but..." Giles sputtered.

"And Nikki was beating one of those things years before she lost her fight with Spike. Me? I've kicked Spike's ass several times.

"Have some _faith_ in me, Giles. I _will _win this."

Then Buffy walked back towards Zed, leaving Giles standing speechless.

...

J couldn't believe what he was hearing. Zed was talking to the little blond girl. K, meanwhile, had gone over to where the preds were standing. K could understand and approximate almost 200 alien languages, including 6 of the 7 primary pred languages.

"You'll be fighting one of the males," Zed said to Buffy. "These things are very fast, and even though they like a challenge, they don't fight fair. He will cloak himself, and he will have a multitude of weapons, including the equivalent of a tank gun. Plus, they are extremely strong. Their home world has two and a half times our gravity, which means that a 7 foot tall predator will have enormous strength."

"That means that the predator will also be really _heavy_, right?" Buffy asked. She didn't seem at all bothered by the prospect of facing a predator. J had been in MIB long enough to become accustomed to things, and especially beings, not being what they seemed, but this was different. This wasn't an alien disguised as a human girl, this _was_ a human girl, from Earth. Giles had called her a slayer, but did that _really_ make her a match for a predator?

Then Buffy picked up one of the swords those rejects from a Robin Hood movie had been carrying around, twirling it around experimentally like it was made of hollow plastic instead of steel. She also looked like she knew her way around the sword. Still, a sword was nothing compared to the weapons that a predator would bring to bear.

"Yes," Zed said to Buffy. "A male predator will weigh about half to three quarters of a ton."

"Uhm, how much is that in Earth pounds?" Buffy asked.

Zed looked at her oddly.

"One thousand to one thousand five hundred pounds."

_Oh, man,_ J thought. _She's a ditz. This girl is doomed. _

Then J remembered that the girl had immediately figured out that a big alien from a high gravity world would weigh a lot.

" Miss Summers," Zed continued. "You have to realize that a predator is used to feeling much heavier on his own world. He may be heavy for his size to us, but from his standpoint he will feel as light as a feather."

Buffy gave the sword one more experimental twirl.

"Well, Zed," she said. "I can relate to that."

J wanted to tell Zed to stop this. He knew there had to be a lot more to the girl than met the eye, but why did the predators think that _she_ could help them with their exotic wildlife problem?

Then, J was startled to find Hellboy standing at his elbow.

"Hey, Father," Hellboy said to Bruttenholm. "We need to get this show on the road, it's almost sundown."

Bruttenholm turned to Zed.

"He's quite right, you know."

K walked back from where the preds were standing.

"We've got a problem, Zed," K said. "The preds are insisting that the girl fight a _female_."

"_**What?"**_ J exclaimed. "Zed, we can't let her do that! It's crazy enough that she was going to fight a_ male_ predator!"

"Let me guess, with predators the female is the bigger and badder sex, right?" Buffy asked.

"Yes," Zed replied. "But it's _worse_ than that. The males are the predators who travel to different planets to hunt prey. Some they kill for themselves...but...they will capture other prey alive to take back home. The females, you see, are homebodies. They have territories on their home world, and in certain reserves close to the home world. And the males, they bring live prey for the females to hunt, as tribute."

"Sort of like their version of flowers?" Buffy asked.

"More like their version of an engagement ring," Zed said. "But you have to understand. Many species and cultures have seen a male predator hunt, but _none_ of them have seen a _female_ predator hunt. No prey to our knowledge has returned from the predators' home system to describe how a female predator hunts. We do have intelligence that if a male's tribute fails to impress a female, then he is expected to offer _himself_ up as quarry. We also know that they are much larger than the males, even their mandibles are twice as large as those of their male counterparts. But it is highly unusual for a female predator to leave her home world."

"So they must be really desperate then, huh, for some of their precious females to travel here," Buffy said.

" I don't think that predators _can_ feel desperate, Miss Summers," Zed replied. "K, we need to negotiate with the preds some more. For them to request that Miss Summers, even if she is a vampire slayer, fight a _female_ predator is completely unreasonable."

"Wait...Zed, did you say _vam_...?" J didn't finish his question before he noticed something else. Buffy Summers was leaving them and walking to the spot where the preds were waiting. "Zed, _look_."

"Damn," Zed said.

"OK," Buffy said to the predators. "Let's get this over with. My favorite show is on in 30 minutes."

...

There was a small part of Buffy's mind, probably the most rational part, telling her that she was being extremely reckless. However, that part was being shouted down by three other parts in her mind.

The first part, the protective big sister, wanted to get Dawn off world ASAP. Glory would still cause a lot of damage searching, but if Dawn was on another planet, the mad God(dess) probably wouldn't destroy the world if she couldn't leave it. She liked to shop too much.

The second part was a memory. As she looked over at the rippling air where the predators were standing, she started remembering Nikki Wood's fight with the predator as if it had been her own. She had had a similarly vivid experience when Spike was telling her how he had killed Nikki on a New York subway. She had been there with Nikki, indeed _as_ Nikki, before Spike broke her neck. And now, she was remembering her fight with the predator just as vividly. As a result, Buffy knew more about fighting a predator than anyone, including the predator she would be facing, could possibly guess. Just to be safe, she hadn't even tipped her hand to Giles. Nikki Wood's memories told her that the predators had exceptional hearing, either their own or technologically enhanced. No need to blab about her hidden advantage.

As for the third part, well, the third part was really weird. Buffy felt an excitement, similar to the one that she sometimes felt when she hunted vampires and demons. Dracula had called it the darkness within her.

_You don't know what you are, what you will become. You haven't even begun._

When K had told them that she was to fight a _female_ predator, this third part of her mind became positively giddy. It was this third part of her mind, even more than the other two, that caused her to step away from the men in black and get this test started.

One of the larger ripples in the air separated itself, no _herself_, from the rest. Then, lights flashed and the air shimmered, and the cloak fell away.

She wore a fierce looking helmet (one that looked somewhat familiar thanks to Nikki's memories). She also wore the cannon on her left shoulder, again, much like the predator Nikki had faced.

But, this female was _much_ bigger, much more powerful looking, and as she threw back her head and roared, the rational part of Buffy's mind was absolutely terrified. As the Slayer, Buffy had faced many terrible beings, but nothing as fierce as this thing looked.

However, the wild part, the _ancient_ part of Buffy's mind that went back to the first slayer, simply bared her teeth, and snarled.

...

Dawn was terrified. The alien monster was huge. And it had weapons, lots of them.

"Willow," Dawn said. "_Do_ something. You can stop this! _You __**have**__ to stop this!_ "

Willow didn't answer.

Dawn turned. Willow was kneeling next to Tara. Tara seemed to be asleep on the ground. Next to Tara and Willow was an empty jar. Willow was chanting a spell quietly under her breath. As Dawn watched in horror, a slimy worm like thing crawled out of Tara's left nostril.

Dawn immediately realized that Willow was trying to restore Tara's mind. The mind that Glory had destroyed.

Dawn turned back and looked at Buffy and the giant alien thing she was facing. Then, before her horrified gaze, the alien's image seemed to dance, shimmer, and then vanish.

To be continued

**Warning: Slight spoiler for the **_**Predators**_** movie. **

**As you can see, I have come up with a **_**different **_**explanation for the two varieties of predator in that film.**

**Next: Buffy versus a female (wolf) predator, chica a chica. **


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3

Duel, with Added Participation

As Hellboy watched the duel between the current Slayer and the huge female predator commence, he reflected back to the only other time he had watched a slayer in action. It was back in 1957, when he was a still a teenager. He and the Slayer of 1957, a girl from Mumbai, had fought together against a vampire coven in Cleveland.

The girl had not survived the fight.

Hellboy hoped that history would not repeat itself here. Like everyone else, he had been startled when Buffy had walked out of the conversation about the difference between male and female predators. He suspected even the predators had been taken off guard, the way they looked back and forth at one another. He knew most of the humans couldn't see them where they stood, but he could. The predators' cloaking devices bent the light around them, but he could still see their outlines. Evidently, the research boys at BPD were right, after all. He could see in a wider spectrum than humans.

So, apparently, could Buffy Summers. Her eyes never left her huge opponent as they circled one another. They had completed three quarters of a circle when a triangle of three red dots appeared on Buffy's chest.

Suddenly, Buffy was gone, leaping backwards. Her backwards standing leap reached almost 5 yards in height and 30 yards in length. The predator seemed disoriented. Hellboy was not surprised. He knew that the Slayer's strength, like that of the vampires she hunted, was mystical in origin. Buffy didn't weigh more than any other girl her size, but she had the physical strength of something that weighed at least as much as a bull African elephant.

Hellboy, like everyone else watching the fight, lost track of Buffy after that leap. He heard Zed, the leader of the Men In Black, yell at everyone to get down. The rest of the audience threw themselves flat, but Hellboy simply went down to one knee. Father had told him to watch for shenanigans, so watch he did. The reason for Zed's warning became apparent a second later, as the predator evidently found Buffy Summers and threw some shuriken style projectiles over the heads of Agent Clay and two other BPD agents. The projectiles slammed into the side of the gas station, but evidently didn't find their mark.

There was a whistling sound that came from overhead as Buffy apparently threw a projectile of her own, probably from the roof of the abandoned gas station. There was the impact of metal screeching against metal, and then the crackle of electricity. Sparks outlined the figure of the predator, and then the predator herself appeared, her cloaking device shorted out. Also destroyed was the shoulder cannon, which now had a sword sticking out of its barrel.

Suddenly, Buffy was back inside the unofficial circle outlined by spectators, having leaped down from the roof. She landed next to one of the piles of abandoned medieval weapons, where she picked up a replacement sword and a short handled battle ax. The female predator, now completely visible to all spectators, flexed her massive right arm, and two extremely nasty looking serrated blades popped out.

The two antagonists started to circle each other once again. Then, when Buffy's back was to the other four predators, one of the three smaller outlines separated itself from the rest, obviously a male, and advanced towards Buffy's unguarded back. Hellboy fumbled for his massive hand cannon, but he was going to be too late.

Buffy, though, half turned. Her left arm was a blur of motion as she threw the battle ax while never taking her eyes off of the larger female. The battle ax buried itself into the male predator's chest. Sparks flew, the outlined form swam into view, and then the male predator, much smaller than the female but still over seven feet tall, fell onto his face in a widening pool of glowing yellowish green blood.

This slayer was as good as her reputation. But then, _this_ was the slayer who had killed three master vampires before her eighteenth birthday, and who had averted at least four apocalypses. Father suspected that this slayer might even be the Warrior of Prophecy.

Hellboy stopped worrying, and as the predator closed with the slayer, he felt an excited anticipation.

This was gonna be good.

...

Buffy ducked the first swipe of the predator's arm blades, but Xander could see that the thing was fast. Very, _very_ fast. So, evidently, could Buffy, who used her own speed to leap backwards beyond the reach of those terrible arm blades. The next moment, however, the predator matched Buffy's leap. Buffy leaped again, this time sideways, and Xander just had a millisecond to realize that his friend had suckered the alien to commit to its own leap. As it landed with such force that the ground literally shook, and a cloud of already broken pavement fragments formed around it, Buffy was now running forward from the predator's left with a speed that matched the predator's own.

Buffy swung her sword, and the predator emitted a startled roar of pain as the sword cut a deep grove into the predator's left arm. However, the predator swiftly demonstrated that its right arm still worked just fine as it parried the next swipe of Buffy's sword between its two serrated arm blades, then twisted the sword out of Buffy's grip.

This was bad.

...

The predator felt a brief moment of triumph. This female Earth creature was impossible. Impossibly strong, and especially impossibly fast. Most disconcerting of all, the creature fought with an experience many times that of her chronological age, indeed almost as if she had fought a predator before.

The predator had not approved when her mother gave one of her brothers the order to assist. Although honor was important to predators, it was not that the predator's sense of fair play was violated. Predators were above all pragmatic. Accomplishment was tied not only to taking risks, but managing them.

No, the disapproval came from the realization that her mother would only have given that order if she was convinced that her daughter was losing the fight.

And yet, incredibly, the human had immediately neutralized the added threat while not letting down her guard.

But, her brother's sacrifice had not been for nothing. It had settled his sister down, and now, _finally_, _she_ had the advantage. She had disarmed the Earth creature.

As she kicked the human's weapon aside, the predator came in low, intending to gut the human on her blade.

But the human evaded the strike and was gone. The predator looked around for the human, but it wasn't until she felt a relentless, vice like grip on her right arm that the predator realized where the human had gone.

The human had jumped onto her arm! The human was so light that the predator hadn't even registered the creature's weight on her arm! Not until the creature exerted her own strength, bending the arm back on itself, and turning the blades against their owner.

It was then and there that the predator understood the truly unnatural nature of her opponent. The creature's strength literally seemed to come from _nothing_! There was no muscle mass behind it. If the human had attempted to kick or strike the predator, she would not have done any damage. The human would simply have bounced off the predator's far greater mass.

But now, the human was using the predator's own muscle mass for leverage, and she felt her arm bend under the pressure. The predator had no choice but to bring her left hand over to support her right forearm.

Suddenly, the pressure ceased, and too late the predator realized what the human's actual objective had been.

It was her final thought.

...

Giles felt a sense of draining relief as Buffy rolled off the predator's body. She had pulled the sword out of the predator's shoulder cannon and shoved it through the predator's helmeted head, holding onto the cannon for leverage.

It had been the most remarkable display of raw power Giles had ever seen Buffy pull off.

Giles watched as Buffy turned towards the spot where she had said the predators were standing. She said something. Hellboy stepped forward and also brandished his weapon threateningly.

Then, from the spot where both Buffy and Hellboy were directing their attention, there was a shower of sparks, and three shapes wavered into view. The predators all seemed to be startled, and Giles himself wondered what had happened.

That is, until Willow Rosenberg stepped forward, her eyes black, and joined the side of Buffy and Hellboy.

Possibly the most powerful witch in generations had decided to take a hand.

The thought replaced Giles' sense of relief with one of unease.

...

"So," Buffy said. "Anyone else have any surprises?"

Buffy felt much less confidence than her words communicated. The female predator had been a tough opponent, extremely difficult to stay ahead of. Worse, the male predator would have taken her completely by surprise if it hadn't been for Willow's telepathic warning.

Then, suddenly, the cloaking fields for the three remaining predators shorted out. The three remaining predators were suddenly standing revealed, looking around as if trying to figure out what went wrong.

The answer appeared at Buffy's elbow.

"Hey, Buffy," Willow said.

And just like that, the balance of power shifted.

...

As he translated for the predator matriarch, K felt a little numb. He had seen many incredible things. At one time, _so_ many incredible things he had asked J to wipe his memory. It hadn't worked, being a MIB agent was apparently in the very fiber of K's DNA.

But, to see a twenty year old California blond cutie barely break a sweat while taking apart _two_ preds, one of them a _female_, well...there simply were no words for that.

"We congratulate the Earth female on her victory, and there will be no further tests," the Matriarch said. The Matriarch was extremely impressive. She was _gigantic_, and wore a necklace made up of jaws and teeth from some of the most terrifying carnivores ever described in the _Encyclopedia Galactica_, and even a couple of jaws and teeth from things that K was not familiar with (nor did he ever want to be). "We are ready to begin negotiations."

After K translated to Buffy Summers, the girl nodded.

"Let me check with my people," she said.

...

The first thing Buffy did was to go back and interrupt the hug between Dawn and Tara. She then gave the quiet and gentle blond witch a hug of her own.

"Welcome back, Tara," Buffy said.

"Thanks," said Tara.

"How did you...?" Buffy asked.

"It...it was Willow's idea, after she w...w...watched the alien doctor repairing Giles. The alien repaired my brain, and Willow used magick to jump start my pscyhe. There're some missing memories, quite a lot actually. That stuff is probably still with Glory. But, no more babbling craziness, so I'm happy."

"Well, thanks," Buffy said. "Willow said that you were the one who saw the male predator sneaking up on me."

"Yeah," Tara said. "These predators have such interesting auras. Willow figured I might be able to see them where no one else could."

Next

Chapter 4

Negotiations


	5. Chapter 5

**In my longer fan fics, I sometimes go into weird, pseudo-scientific stuff. **

**Warning: Weird pseudo-scientific stuff ahead. This is a transitional chapter. **

Chapter 4

Negotiations

"You want to do _what_?" Giles exclaimed.

"I want to take Dawn _with_ me, maybe Willow too, if she's willing," Buffy said. "It's the best way to solve the Glory problem. She's too strong for me to fight, for _anybody_ to fight, really. I don't want to spend the rest of our lives hiding from her, and knowing that if I fail to protect Dawn, I also fail to protect the world.

"Glory can't find Dawn and use her to open multiple hells on Earth if we're in space."

"And what about the predators?" Giles asked. "Buffy, you have seen for yourself. They are an extremely violent species, and they aren't trustworthy."

"That's where Willow comes in," Buffy says. "She helps balance things out some. And I have someone else in mind who could really help keep predators on the straight and narrow."

"I dunno, Buffy," Willow said. "Under most circumstances, sure, but with Tara..."

"_I_ want to go with you," Tara interrupted, looking at Buffy. Then she turned to Dawn.

"I'll do everything in my power to make sure that nothing happens to you," Tara said to Dawn.

"OK, I'm in," said Willow. She turned to Tara and smiled. "Thanks for making things easy."

Tara tipped her head forward so that she and Willow were touching foreheads. The bump hurt a little, but Tara was glad to have her brain back in working order again. Even if she didn't remember much of anything other than these people and her life in Sunnydale. There was something about missing her mother, but not missing her father and brother, but things were blurry.

"I'll go too," Xander said.

"Wait a minute," Anya said. "_I_ don't want to go into space with those things! I know beings like that...they want to take our heads and spines for trophies and suck out our brains! It's what they do."

"Anya, they aren't demons, they're aliens," Xander looked at her. "It's not like you've ever seen these things before."

Anya gave Xander a pitying look.

"_Wait_ a minute, you_ have _seen these guys before, haven't you?" Xander asked.

"As a matter of fact, Xander, I have, and believe me, they are as nasty as any demon you've ever met," Anya said. "One of them tried to take my head and spine, and nearly blew me up in France, or was it West Francia back then? Or maybe it was China."

"And you didn't think it was a good idea to...I don't know..._say _something?" Xander said. "You know, _before_ Buffy decided to take one on, which turned into taking _two_ on?"

Xander looked up and yelled at the predators.

"_**Cheaters!"**_

"Well, no," Anya said. "I'm not a vengeance demon anymore, Xander. What if they still want to take my head and spine?"

"Anya," Giles said. "The predator tried to take you _because _you were a vengeance demon. You were dangerous game. Now, as an unarmed human, you are not. I doubt you would be of any interest to them at all. Unlike Buffy."

"Oh," Anya said with a nod. "You are right, Giles. I am now helpless and _very_ non-threatening."

She then smiled brightly as she looked at Xander.

"OK, then," she said. "I'll go too."

Tara looked at Giles. So did everyone else.

"Oh, very well," Giles said with a sigh. "I'll go. Someone has to keep you lot out of trouble."

At that moment, the group was joined. Tara was startled. She had a vague recollection that Spike had been with them, but she'd forgotten about him. And though there was still some light in the sky, and pink on the western horizon, the sun was now down.

"So, gang," the bleach blond vampire said as he clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "It's off to outer space for us, then, right?"

...

"It's not that simple," Zed said. "There are certain limits, both biological and political, to you going with Buffy to the predator's home world."

Giles felt his uneasiness increase. He did not like the idea of Buffy leaving to go to the predator's home world. However, he liked the idea of her going alone even less. She was too much of a tempting target for predators who wanted to test themselves with dangerous game.

"Let's start with the biological limits," Giles said.

"As I said to Buffy before, the predator home world is substantially larger than ours. The gravity is two and a half times greater than ours. By the way, most true planets with advanced biological life _are_ larger than ours. The inhabited worlds that are closer to our size or smaller tend to be moons around gas giant stars. With the greater gravity comes much greater air pressure, much of it due not only to the air simply weighing more and being compressed in the higher gravity, but also to a greater concentration of oxygen."

"In other words, we would face the danger of hyperoxia," Giles said.

"Yes," Zed replied. "Look at the predators. You can see they are all carrying breathing apparatus and air tanks. They can breath our air, but our atmosphere is perilously thin to them, and without additional air they _will_ eventually suffocate.

"And oxygen poisoning would only be the beginning. The very world, with its higher gravity and air pressure, would be oppressive. Noise would be very intense. With the possible exception of Miss Summers, you would all tire out very quickly."

"Do you have access to technology that could help us to survive on this world?"

Zed shook his head.

"I don't _know_," Zed said. "That's where the political barriers come in. The predators allow embassies, but not on their planet. No alien has been allowed on the preds' home world, except as game."

"Well, there's a vamp there now and she's having a grand old time," Buffy said. "And if they want _me_, they take my s_ister_, and if they take my _sister_, they take my _friends_."

Buffy turned to Willow and Tara.

"What about magic?" Buffy said.

"Buffy," Tara said. "There's nothing...no history or spell book has anything, or references anything, about interplanetary travel and adaptation. It's...like...you know, an alien concept. It never came up."

"Wait," Willow said. "_I _may be able to do something, maybe with some help."

Willow turned to Zed.

"Where's Doc Leech?" she asked.

...

Buffy walked up to Riley.

"Thanks for your help," she said.

"Hey, don't mention it," Riley replied. He felt a little awkward, and found himself wondering how Sam was doing back at Fort Riley. "After all, I helped rescue you from some knights just to get you into a fight with giant alien hunters."

"Ooooh!" Buffy said brightly. "Alpha male guilt over putting me in the path of rampaging aliens! I can _use_ that!"

Riley chuckled in spite of himself. He really liked that about Buffy, how she could turn from fierce warrior to cheery California girl, and back again.

"Use that how?" Riley asked.

"You have the working phone, since Willow's spell wore off on the payphone," Buffy said. "And we're still in the middle of nowhere where there doesn't seem to be any cell service. Could you call this number and hand the phone to me?"

Riley's good humor vanished as soon as he saw the business card. The card had the name "Angel Investigations" drawn next to an amateurish line drawing of what appeared to be a deformed butterfly.

Riley pulled out his satellite phone.

"Yeah, sure," he said. Riley did not succeed in keeping the bitterness from his voice.

...

"So, how did Riley respond to you asking him to call Angel?" Willow asked.

"A lot better than I thought he would," Buffy responded. She looked at Dawn.

"How're you holding up?" Buffy asked.

"Oh, do you care, now?" Dawn worked to put as much sarcasm as she could in her voice, even as she was privately thrilled that Buffy was finally paying her some attention.

"Nah," Buffy said. "But ever since she made me read the big sister's manual, Mom wanted me to ask you that question at least once a day."

"Well, you're about a year's worth of questions behind," Dawn said.

"So, how are you holding up?" Buffy asked.

"Hey!" Dawn yelled. "No cheap twosies!"

Buffy grinned. Dawn found herself smiling back.

Then, just as she always did, Buffy went right back to business.

"Angel wasn't home," Buffy said. "I left a message, but unless he calls in the next two hours or so, we're going to have to proceed without him."

"And if that happens, you still want _Spike_ to go with us, even though...?" Willow let her voice trail off as she guiltily looked around.

"Even though _what_?" Dawn demanded.

Buffy shook her head as if Dawn's comment was like the buzzing of a fly next to her ear. Dawn hated it when Buffy did that.

"Yeah," Buffy said. "After talking with Giles and Zed, and especially after fighting those things, I'm convinced that we need leverage, and the best leverage we can hold over the predators' heads is our very own vampire."

...

The matriarch was stunned by the impracticality of the human female's demands.

"Another vampire, going with you?" she said. "That is an impossible concession. The one vampire that has made its way to our world is already causing enough damage!"

The male human who approximated their language spoke to the human female. The human female spoke back.

"She says she doesn't trust you," K said. "She wants her vampire to travel with you, to insure your good behavior."

"She doesn't think that _she_ can insure my good behavior?" the predator asked. "She defeated two of my most accomplished spawn. What about the curiously shaped red human?"

"He is needed here," the human female replied through K. "Besides, _him_ you could fight. You have no defense from a vampire."

"Which is why we don't want another one," the matriarch said. "Can you trust it not to go off on its own, and start to hunt my kin freely? My understanding is that most of these 'vampires' have no honor whatsoever."

The replay that came back through K was terse.

"We're working on it."

...

"Are you _sure_ you're up to this?" Willow had asked. "I'd do it, but I need to help out with Doc Leech."

"I'm up to it," Tara had said.

Now, she was wishing she hadn't been so quick to volunteer to do the spell.

It was amazing how the BPD group was able to produce an Orb of Thessala so quickly. Apparently Trevor Bruttenholm found several of them at garage sales. Tara reviewed the spell, which Willow had written down on a couple of cards, trying to figure out where she'd gone wrong on her first attempt. Dawn was chanting the correct counter incantation while waving the candle, and so, interestingly, was Riley Finn. She didn't recall noticing it before, but there was a brightness in Riley's aura. Nothing close to Willow's, or even Dawn's, but Major Finn had the potential to be a fair spell caster himself.

Tara concentrated on trying to cast the primary spell again, but as she was starting to open her mouth, Spike chimed in.

"What the hell is the problem, blondie?" Spike grumbled. "Can't you hurry up and put my bloody soul back? When it's time to go, I want to be done with the brooding and recriminations over what a bad boy I've been."

Tara cast the spell again. Again, she felt something pass through her. Again, the Orb started to glow. She could see an aura inside of it. The aura of a man, a surprisingly gentle man. She looked at Spike, and his demonic aura was red, pulsing, and eager.

Tara read the old gypsy curse, but the Orb still did nothing but continue to glow. It didn't vanish, and the soul didn't enter Spike.

As the glow in the Orb died away, Tara felt faint. She doubted she had the strength to try again.

...

"_That's_ myrrathian steak?" Willow asked dubiously. She was holding a test tub with a small amount of green sludge on the bottom. The sludge reminded Buffy of the sort of infected green mucous that decorated handkerchiefs during the tail end of a cold. "What's _in_ it?"

"You _really_ don't want to know," J replied.

"Is it poisonous to humans?" Willow asked.

"Not that I know of," J replied. "But I can't say for sure."

Willow shut her eyes. Then opened them up and looked at Doc Leech in its jar.

"It's not," Willow said authoritatively.

"How do you know?" Buffy asked. "Particularly since you _didn't_ know a second ago."

"I asked the doc," Willow said, nodding at the leech like alien in the jar. "He and I have kinda of a...telepathic bond. We developed it while we worked on Tara together."

"Probably should have asked him first, then," Buffy said.

"Yeah, but...Doc Leech also told me what myrrathian steak is made out of. I was really hoping to not have to find that out."

"It looks like snot," Buffy said helpfully.

"I wish it was," Willow said. "I really wish it was."

Willow then took the stopper out of the test tube, and took a sip.

"Ewww!" said Buffy.

Willow made a face, then turned to Buffy and gave her a sickly smile.

"You think _that_ was bad, wait just a second," Willow said.

Willow muttered some words, then gagged a couple of times. Then she took the still open test tube that was in her right hand, and spit myrrathian steak into it. Enough to fill the tube two thirds to the top. Willow then hastily put the stopper back onto the tube and ran out and around the corner.

Buffy heard the sounds of retching.

When Willow came back around the corner, her face was pale.

"Was that experience as bad as it looked?" Buffy asked.

"Let me put it this way," Willow said. "All in all, I would much rather fight a pissed off Goddess than do that again."

"That," J said. "May be the single grossest thing I have ever seen. And believe me, that is _really_ saying something coming from me!"

Willow looked at the alien in the jar.

"I really hope you appreciated that!" she said.

...

"I'm sorry, Giles, but it's not working!" Tara said.

"Get _Red_ to do it!" Spike said. "Blondie's head is obviously still scrambled."

"Actually, you need to shut up now," Riley said.

"Or what, Captain..."

"Major."

"...whatever, Cardboard. I'm the key guy here. Buffy said so!"

"Actually," Giles said. "We _all_ need to shut up now. And I don't think Willow could have done any better, Tara. The problem isn't you, it's Spike."

"Oh, yeah, blame the vampire," Spike complained. "Real predictable for a watcher."

"Yes, well, as is so often the case, blaming the vampire is appropriate," Giles said. "However, I blame myself as well. I should have seen it."

"Seen what, sir?" Riley asked.

"So we're back to 'sir', now, Riley?" Giles said. "Never mind. The curse on Angel is actually a curse on Angelus. A curse that put his body and his strength under the control of the resurrected soul of Liam, the man Angel was. Angelus is more or less along for the ride, helplessly watching Angel squander opportunities for abject cruelty and mayhem. Thus, Angelus' most fond hope is for Angel's soul to be ejected again, so that he is free to engage in his most wanton desires."

"So?" Spike said. "That's what I'll be doing to myself...wait a minute. Oh, _bollocks_! That won't work!"

"That's right," Giles said. "It _won't_ work. The Romany curse is not a curse if the target _wants _it to happen. In Spike's case, he agreed to having this curse put on him. For whatever personal demented reason he has..."

"_Hey_!" shouted Spike.

"...ahem! For whatever reason, the vampire wants the soul. That makes the curse not a curse, and a curse that is not a curse can not be cast.

"We'll have to find some other way to control Spike."

"_**Hey**_!" Spike shouted again.

"I agree," Buffy said as she walked out of the abandoned gas station. "How about we go with the _truth_?"

"Buffy, have you lost your...Good _**Lord**_!" Giles exclaimed.

"The truth about _what_? _**Bloody**__ Hell_!"

Riley stared at Buffy, wordless.

"Buffy, is that _really_ you?" Dawn asked.

Spike, forgetting momentarily that there was a "truth" to tell him, spoke with characteristic lack of tact.

"You look like a muscular cabbage patch doll, Slayer!"

...

Buffy insisted on going first. She gave Xander a threatening look when he argued that he should go first.

"Willow says that this is going to be a drastic union of magick and alien medicine, Xander," Buffy said. "I'm the one who has the best chance of withstanding this if something goes wrong. I'm the best guinea pig."

Xander opened his mouth to resume his argument about being the most expendable.

"End of story, Xan," Buffy said. Xander shook his head, and Buffy smiled. "But thanks for trying."

Buffy went back into the abandoned gas station, took off all of her clothes, and laid down on the table where Giles had been when he was still wounded. She hardly felt it when "Doc Leech" was laid on her face (right over her lips!) and crawled into her nostril. Just a momentary obstruction in her nostril, which made her want to blow her nose, then she didn't feel the alien inside her at all.

Then, Willow started an incantation, and Buffy suddenly felt intense pain, almost as if she was being compressed in a vice. She tried to take in a breathe, but there didn't seem to be enough air.

The pain ended as quickly as it began, but the feeling of suffocation stayed.

Then she felt an obstruction in her nose. Instinctively, she reached up to pull it out.

"Wait, Buffy, _don't_ crush the doctor," Willow said. "We've got 6 more people to do."

Buffy, through an effort of sheer will, stopped her hand from reaching her nose. Then, the obstruction was gone, and she felt Willow put the jar on her face to scoop up the alien doctor. Buffy then put all of her mental effort to stop herself from panicking about suffocating. Suddenly, Buffy felt something put over her face. She opened her eyes to see J holding a mask over her face. There was a predator air tank connected to the hose.

"I don't believe it," J said. "You _did_ it! You changed her into a...something."

Buffy reached up for the air hose, but stopped when she saw her stubby little fingers.

...

"_Drusilla_?" Spike exclaimed. "The alien monsters are being hunted by _Drusilla_?"

Part of Spike immediately understood why the Slayer and her friends had not told him that the predator hunting vampire was Drusilla. The rest of him, however, simply felt betrayed and frustrated. They _never_ would trust him. Not that he cared. Well, except for the Slayer, and curiously enough, her little sister. He desperately wanted _them_ to trust him.

But they wouldn't, no one would. Not while they couldn't put his soul back (not that having a bloody soul made anyone perfectly trustworthy, anyway).

And the predators _certainly_ wouldn't trust him. Not that they should. The aliens were going to betray the Slayer if they could, once she did their dirty work. Besides, they smelled delicious.

And what about Drusilla? His first true love. His sire. Could he really resist the opportunity to hunt aliens at her side on an alien world?

He had to admit he really didn't know. And if _he_ didn't know what he would do, how could anyone else? How could the Slayer?

But for whatever reason, he still wanted to help the Slayer and her sister. If there were only some other way to ensure his good behavior...

"Wait a minute," Spike said. "I actually have an idea. And I hate it, so I know you all will think it's a good one."

Buffy's head, mounted on impossibly broad shoulders stuck on top of a squat little 3 foot body, turned to look at him. Buffy was wrapped in her shirt, and looked just plain...wrong.

"What about Major Cardboard over there?" Spike asked. "_He_ could keep an eye on me. Maybe the Initiative could make him a remote control to activate my damn chip if I start to act up, even if I'm not attacking humans.

"And he bleeding hates me, so he won't hesitate to use it."

"Neither would I," squeeked a squat little Xander with disproportionately broad shoulders. The boy also had an oxygen mask over his little squashed up face. "It's your turn, Giles."

Giles looked at Xander with a grimace.

"It doesn't hurt," Xander said. "Much."

...

"Are you _serious_?" Riley exclaimed. "You want _me_ to go with _them_?"

"The vampire suggested it, and the matriarch accepted the proposal," Bruttenholm said.

"Why would she accept _Spike's_ proposal?" Riley asked.

"Evidently, she accepted it because it included you, and she _trusts_ you," Bruttenholm said. "She knows that you are a man of your word. Even when you are lying for clandestine purposes, you do so to honor prior promises you made to our government."

"And how would a predator matriarch know how trustworthy I am?" Riley asked.

"Apparently," K said. "The preds have been following your career for awhile."

"Why would they...?" Riley suddenly felt very, very sick. "They were _scouting_ me, weren't they? They were going to _hunt_ me."

"In their own way, the preds have just paid you an enormous compliment, Major Finn," Zed said.

...

The matriarch was fascinated. She knew that there was something on Earth, an entropy reversing process called "magick" that arose from the unique dimensional instability around Earth. The dimensional instability essentially made the space in and around Earth an open system. There were humans and other creatures here who could manipulate the entropy reversal process, and apparently the red headed human was quite exceptional at it. And in conjunction with the medical symbiot, this "Willow" had done the incredible. She had shaped the human organism to live and thrive on the predator's home world!

Next

Chapter 5

Departure


	6. Interlude

Interlude

Drusilla sat nestled in the branches of a purple tree growing out of the side of a mountain. She was singing to the moons. There were _three_ moons, two of them blue and green. She watched lights traveling the sky, and knew that the lights contained Bad Delicious Space Demons (which she now called "tea cups").

Hugging the ground below was the constant fog that shrouded the home of the tea cups. Once in awhile, they sent blind hunting parties up here to find her. They knew she was there, but all she had to do was sit quietly and they would walk right past her, and she would cull the best smelling ones from the herd. It also helped that she knew that they were coming long before they arrived.

With the repeated drinking of tea cup blood (or sweet tea, as she liked to call it), her physical strength, ferocity, and precognitive abilities all markedly increased. It was the precognitive abilities that made her advantage over the tea cups complete. Not only were the tea cups unable to see her, she couldn't _miss_ them.

Eventually, Drusilla told herself, she would go back home, where she would use her increased power to make father Angel, son Spike, and grandmother/daughter Darla pay for their betrayals. For deserting her and breaking up their family.

But then, every time Drusilla thought about leaving the sweet tea behind, she felt sad. And, really, she was in no hurry to go home, so she would stay for awhile longer.

Drusilla stopped singing as she had the most wonderfully disturbing, deliciously awful, thought.

No, it _wasn't_ a thought, it was a vision of what was to come.

"Oedipus betrays his mother," Drusilla whispered sadly to the moons. "And brings an assassin for her daughter-in-law."


End file.
